Dark tourism, the dark side of cultural tourism: application to the city of Porto

Dark Tourism represents an extension of cultural tourism, once it was necessary to innovate this tourism typology justified by a decrease in demand. This change, was verified in the tourist experience level, that is, to provide unique moments in the cultural level, through the experience, so that it could be the option for a greater number of tourists in the destination. Dark Tourism sites include concentration camps, inactive prisons, serial killers homes, cemeteries, and all other venues that meet the standards of death, tragedy and suffering (Biran et al. 2011; Braithwaite and Lee 2006; Dunkley et al. 2011; Kang et al. 2012; Light 2016, 2017; Podoshen 2013; Podoshen et al. 2015; Stone and Sharpley 2008, 2009; Stone 2012; Yan et al. 2016; and Zhang et al. 2016). In Portugal there are some sites associated with the practice of Dark Tourism, although this is not yet sufficiently explored. The main objective of this investigation is the evaluation of Dark Tourism potential in the city of Porto. Partial objectives are: proving the existence of a market niche in Porto associated to Dark Tourism; understand if the city of Porto has tourism resources and tourism demand, able to develop a tourism experience within the Dark Tourism offer; and to sensitize the Destination Management Organizations (DMO ’ s) in Porto to the opportunity of this market, through 178 questionnaires, applied to tourists/visitors in the city of Porto. This research confirmed some objectives, variables and proposed fields.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

‘Alternative Hedonism’:Exploring the Role of Pleasure in Moral Markets

Fair trade’, ‘ethical’ and ‘sustainable’ consumption emerged in response to rising concerns about the destructive effects of hedonic models of consumption that are typical of late capitalist societies. Advocates of these ‘markets for virtue’ sought to supplant the insatiable hedonic impulse with a morally restrained, self-disciplining disposition to consumption. With moral markets currently losing their appeal, we respond to the tendency to view hedonism as an inhibitor of moral market behaviour, and view it instead as a potential enabler. Drawing upon the concept of ‘alternative hedonism’ (Soper, 2007, 2008, 2016, 2017), we illustrate how consumers experience both morality and pleasure concurrently; show how they attempt to reconcile these aspects of the experience; and elucidate the implications of so doing. Using the moral market for ethical tourism as an exemplar of ‘alternative hedonism’, we identify three ‘self-managing strategies’ – moderating, abiding and levelling – that re-structure the moral order of consumption in meaningful ways and with profound outcomes. In the context of anxieties about personal, social and ecological consequences of consumption, we show empirically how self managing strategies reify a less contradictory framing of consumption by tapping into alternative cultural discourses on morality. We discuss the consequences of these strategies, highlighting how they may legitimize and sustain consumption via moral markets despite the reproduction of social inequality and ecological threats